This invention relates to chairs, specifically to folding chairs.
In the design of folding chairs, prior art units have been made to fold to a compact unit where the back rest folds on top of the seat and the front and rear leg frames folds underneath the seat.
Although this compact design provides for ease of transportation and storage, nevertheless they become thicker in their compact position due to the support members folding on top of one another. In such compact position, these prior art units do not possess the structural elements for use a high quality area divider in a room or as an elegant furniture piece.
Other prior art units fold into a compact bundle requiring additional diagonal members for maintaining stability during the in-use position. Although convenient, ease of transport, and minimal space requirements these units are not suitable for complementing and enhancing a given room.
Several types of thin, flat chairs have been proposed--for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,857,604 (1974) to Scott, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,245 (1986) to Hardarson. Although inexpensive to manufacture, require minimal space, and ease of transport, such chairs do not provide full back rests, since the back rests pivot to fold to a flat position.
The invention disclosed is based on the object of developing a folding chair that has a simple and elegant orthogonal structure that folds into a logical, coherent structure without increasing the profile depth of the chair when folded to a flat position. Besides the advantages described, this chair requires minimal space for storage, used in conjunction with a base support it functions as a area room divider when folded flat, and provides a full back rest.